Gareth Bladen: Bridgnorth will be at the races

Bridgnorth skipper Gareth Bladen insists they could be in trouble if they take struggling Shrewsbury for granted in tomorrow's Shropshire derby.

Shrewsbury sit bottom of Midlands Two West (North), having lost all but one of their nine league games so far.

But they put up a real fight before going down 20-17 at home high-flying Aston Old Edwardians last week and Bladen is wary of an upset at the Edgar Davies Ground.

"Shrewsbury are having a disappointing season but they had a close game on Saturday and there are no easy games between us two," he said.

"We really need to win to keep ourselves close to midtable and stay away from the bottom.

"We know we've got a good team and it's slowly coming together."

Shrewsbury welcome Harper Adams duo Will Armitage and Monty Maule back into their squad.

And skipper Simon Evitts insists they are capable of picking up only a second win of the season.

"They're fourth from bottom and we're obviously rock bottom so we're going into it as underdogs but we've got some confidence to take forward from last week," he said.

"We'll be mentally and physically prepared for it and we'll hopefully go down there and get a good result.

"In a derby it's about whoever wants it more on the day – I'm sure everyone will step it up a couple of notches."

Oswestry will be trying to pile more pressure on the top two in South Lancs/ Cheshire Two when they play host to Southport tomorrow.

The Eagles go into the game on the back of a seven-game winning run that has lifted them into the top three – and they are only three points behind the leaders, Douglas (Isle of Man).

Cleobury Mortimer aim to pull further away from the relegation zone in Midlands Three West (North) when they entertain Willenhall at Lacon Childe School tomorrow.

The south Shropshire side picked up only their second win of the season against bottom side Yardley & District last week, but that was enough to lift them out of the bottom three.